Salivating Over Salazar

There’s a lot of discussion about what we should do about Danny Salazar, who had the most Salazar night with a 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks line against the...

There's a lot of discussion about what we should do about Danny Salazar, who had the most Salazar night with a 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks line against the Rays Tuesday evening. I actually see most people loving to chase him and I'm not so confident about that. On one hand, his 13.50 K/9 is the highest in the majors with a 3.18 xFIP as his HR/FB rate has soared to 23.5% and BABIP sits at .383. Clearly, those will come down and voila! We're in business. Well...not really. His walk rate is as bad as it's ever been at 4.35 BB/9, groundballs have dipped ten points to 37.6% due to a huge increase of Changeups (his best pitch) that he either leaves up in the zone at hit hard or gets whiffs down in the zone. He's inducing only 13.6% soft contact meaning that the BABIP should come down, but still stay over .300, and I'm concerned that we're going to see a 3.80 ERA or so with an IPS still under 6.0 and a WHIP above 1.25. Yeah, the 7+ Ks per start are great and all, but are 2 strikeouts a start worth the big hit in ERA/WHIP on a given night? I legit don't have the answer here and I think it depends on the structure of your team.

Let’s see how every other SP did yesterday:

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Nick Pollack

Founder of Pitcher List. Creator of CSW, The List, and SP Roundup. Worked with MSG, FanGraphs, CBS Sports, and Washington Post. Former college pitcher, travel coach, pitching coach, and Brandeis alum. Wants every pitcher to be dope.

9 responses to “Salivating Over Salazar”

  1. Jimmy Two-Times says:

    Would you drop Lack for Nola? I also have Maeda, Severino, Alex Wood, Godley and Musgrove.

  2. ragnospam says:

    It’s crazy to me that a guy can K 2+ innings worth of hitters per start but still get pounded for an ER per inning. I think the HR/FB comes down over time but man you almost have to own Kershaw to get away w/ running Salazar.

  3. The Diesel says:

    Poor command is a very serious problem! Nothing else really matters a whole lot when you don’t know where the ball is going.

  4. Ryan says:

    To be fair, Greinke had only allowed 2 ER through 6.1, then gave up a 2 run homer in the 7th inning. Then he induced a groundout and was pulled.

  5. Joe says:

    I need to drop an SP to make room for hitter, maybe two, because of injuries. Who can I lose from these, Morton, E-Rod, Manaea, or Karns?

  6. Rasouddress says:

    JC Ramirez was quoted by Taylor Blake Ward as learning “How to pitch smarter.” He said that the strikeouts are nice and all, but he prefers to go deep into games on efficient pitch counts. I think you’re going to see a trend that you don’t want to see.

  7. David says:

    Hey Nick….Should I use my high waiver wire position to get Severino? You still like him for ROS? Continues as Top 25 moving forward?

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